Library Worklife

Volume 4, No. 3 • March 2007

Salaries & Pay Equity

WAGE Survey Collecting Pay (In)Equity Stories

The WAGE (Women Are Getting Even) Project is soliciting data and stories from women across the country who may have experienced pay discrimination. The organization will be collecting information until March 22, 2007. They will release the collective national data on Equal Pay Day, April 24, 2007, and the findings from this survey will be posted on their web site (http://www.wageproject.org).

WAGE is a national organization dedicated to eliminating the wage gap during the next decade. WAGE founder Evelyn Murphy is also known for her book Getting Even: Why Women Don’t Get Paid Like Men and What to Do About It (see Library Worklife’s review of this book, v3n2). Murphy launched the WAGE Project to help women tell their stories about pay inequity, organize and mobilize.

To date, the survey respondents have primarily lived in the Northern and Eastern states and have been under the age of sixty. In order for this survey to be representative of the women in this country, WAGE needs to collect information from women from every state and from all age groups. Though WAGE needs more data from women of all ages and from all regions, the organization especially encourages women over the age of sixty and women living in the Southern and Western United States to complete the online survey.

With the information they receive from this survey, WAGE plans develop partnerships, resources and collaborations that will further the work of getting women paid an equal wage. They also hope that the women who take part in this will become more aware of the issue, be more comfortable discussing money with friends and associates and form clubs or bonds to help each other get paid fairly.

Find the survey at this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=518493356934.

ALA-APA Is Part of the Illinois WAGE Hub

The Illinois WAGE Hub Web page is now linked and live on the WAGE Project site
(http://www.wageproject.org). It is linked under Community WAGE Clubs from the Main WAGE Club. Visit their website at
http://www.wageproject.org/content/illinoiswage/illinoismainpage.php. ALA-APA is a participating organization.

Pennsylvania Minimum Librarian Salary is $33,748, According to 2006 Update

In March 1996 the Pennsylvania Library Association Board of Directors endorsed a structure of minimum salaries and benefits for library staff. Last year PaLA adjusted the 1996 salaries by 2006’s CPI increase of 2.5 %, and the PaLA Board endorsed the following minimum salaries:

Full-time support staff, $19,100
Beginning librarians, $33,748
Full-time librarians who supervise at least three librarians, $51,709

Providing context for these numbers is the 2006 ALA-APA Salary Survey: Librarians—Public and Academic. This survey reported that beginning librarians nationwide had an average salary of $40,026 (public) and $42,186 (academic). Department heads had an average salary of $58,184 (public) and $58,354 (academic). At the 2007 ALA Midwinter Meeting, the ALA-APA Council endorsed a nonbinding minimum salary for librarians of $40,000.

Jim Rettig Blogs about Low Salaries in Virginia Library Systems

On February 2, 2007, the Newport News (VA) Daily Press reported that librarians in the Blackwater Regional Library System receive a starting salary of $21,280. The system plans a study that will place this salary in context with those of other area public libraries.

The following response, by Jim Rettig, was published as a letter to the editor. Library Worklife reprints the letter from a February 4, 2007 entry on Rettig’s blog, Twilight Librarian—Jim Rettig’s ruminations on libraries, librarianship, the infosphere and more, http://keillor.richmond.edu/blojsom/blog/jrettig.

The bad news is the $21,280 starting salary for librarians in Isle of Wight and Surry counties. The good news is that the Daily Press has brought attention to this sorry state of affairs.

There is really no need for a study. The study will, however, provide quantitative evidence to support the self-evident—that $21,280 is a paltry starting salary for a professional with a master’s degree (who may be carrying sizeable student debt incurred while earning that degree). A study of salaries in other libraries in the region won’t, however, tell the whole story.

The market for librarians, like the market for other professionals, is national. The 2006 salary study for librarians compiled by the Allied Professional Association, an affiliate of the American Library Association, shows that in public and college libraries the average salary was $56,259 and the mean was $50,976. In January APA’s governing Council approved a resolution endorsing “a minimum salary for professional librarians of not less than $40,000 per year.”

The question isn’t whether or not the Blackwater Regional Library’s starting salary for professionals should be raised. The question is how quickly it can nearly double.

2007 ALA Annual Conference Explores Wage Concerns of Rural, Small Libraries

Salaries for librarians working in rural areas have historically been far below those of their urban counterparts. How can rural libraries make their salaries more competitive and attract qualified job candidates? A program at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference will address this topic in Washington, DC. The program is entitled “Rural and Small Libraries vs. Small Salaries.” Panelists will discuss where salaries now stand and how several rural and small libraries are addressing salary concerns.

Slated to moderate the discussion is Carol Barta, Assistant Director of the North Central Kansas Libraries System. Barta also chairs the ALA Committee on Rural, Native, and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds. This program will be held on Saturday, June 23 at 1:30 pm. Check your program guide for location information.

The 2007 Annual Conference will be held in Washington D.C., from June 21–27, 2007. To register, visit the ALA website.

Co-sponsored by the ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS) and ALA-APA.

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